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The Exiles by Allison Lynn

“Even to Emily, who actually believed Rufino’s work didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, this was an insult. This piece might be worth nothing in a hundred years, but today it could fund nearly anything. Paint slopped on a piece of stretched cotton by an imbecile, yet the person who owned it possessed a slice of power. Power: Emily had so little of it herself that she’d been essentially evicted from Manhattan, the epicenter of power. Here, though, was capital on a canvas. As Emily gazed at the Rufino-she’d slowly lifted it out of the stack for a closer look- more than anything, she simply wanted a piece of the power. She simply wanted a taste. She simply wanted a whiff of what fell in everyone else’s lap. She simply wanted.”

Allison Lynn gives us a world I’m glad I’m not a part of: a world where high finance cheating husbands live with their drunk wives in Manhattan; stealing valuable paintings is okay if you don’t get caught; and calling one’s father-in-law a cocksucker while he’s lying on his deathbed is justifiable because he was an emotionally cold father. I wanted to enjoy this book, but I found it portrayed a pathetic set of characters whose choices prevented me from feeling much compassion.

The book opens with Nate and Emily and their nine month old son, Trevor, leaving New York for Newport. It is a chance to start over as they’ve steadily become further and further behind with expenses accrued from a Manhattan lifestyle. Yet while they are signing the papers for their new home in Rhode Island, their Jeep, with everything they own apart from the furniture being sent, is stolen. Included amongst the items crammed in the stolen Jeep are important papers such as tax returns, a secret stash of pot underneath Nate’s seat, and Emily’s new Tod driving moccasins. Because who doesn’t buy $350.00 shoes when they are going financially under?

Rather than try to ‘camp out’ in their new house, they stay in the Viking Hotel at a suite which had its reservation for Columbus Day weekend cancelled. This expense is added to the credit card tab along with room service, babysitting costs, and drinks from the mini-bar.

How is one to feel sorry for such stupidity? It takes another reader than I to commiserate with their situation, even though Nate is trying to deal with the fact that he is estranged from his father who is suffering from Huntington’s Disease, a disease which he may have inherited. Even though Emily regrets an impulsive action she made at a party last week in a rash move to gain security. Perhaps there are better ways to live than these exiles have chosen.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for the opporunity to read The Exiles, which if not exactly thrilling me did give me something to feel strongly about. Find other thoughts on the tour stop here:

10 thoughts on “The Exiles by Allison Lynn”

I have actually had the occasion to speak with a New Yorker who had been out of work for two years and had never considered dropping a gym membership or her manicure and facial expenses, since she thought she would never get a job if she didn't continue to look like she had one! We're talking $450 a month on “maintenance” — crazy! I think it reading about that perspective might be fascinating to some people, in a weird way.